After Braves outing, where does Eury Perez stand in Marlins history after 10 starts?

The Miami Marlins knew a start like this was bound to happen. Eury Perez knew a start like this was bound to happen.

Now it’s a matter of seeing how he responds.

Perez, the Marlins’ 20-year-old ballyhooed rookie right-handed pitcher, had dominated through his first nine MLB starts despite his innings and his pitch counts being closely monitored. He was on a stretch of 21 consecutive scoreless innings pitched and had given up just one run over a six-start span.

And then Saturday happened.

Perez faced unarguably the biggest test of his young MLB career in arguably the best lineup in baseball.

The Atlanta Braves wasted little time against him.

Perez faced just eight batters. Seven got hits, including two home runs and five total extra-base hits. Six scored. He was out of the game after only getting one out and put the Marlins in a spot in which they couldn’t recover in an eventual 7-0 loss to the Braves.

“This was going to happen eventually,” Marlins manager Skip Schumaker said. “He wasn’t going to go scoreless through the rest of his career.”

Some might view it as a wake-up call, a reminder that Perez still has a long way to go in his still burgeoning MLB career. Schumaker prefers to look at the outing another way.

“It’s a learning experience,” Schumaker said. “This is the game, and it’s hard. I’ve said it before. As soon as you think you have it figured out, something’s gonna happen.”

That something happened Saturday. Perez had a lot of his pitches leak over the middle of the plate. The Braves capitalized. Ronald Acuna Jr. and Ozzie Albies hit back-to-back home runs to lead off the inning.

After that, it was back-to-back singles from Austin Riley and Matt Olson followed by back-to-back doubles from Sean Murphy and Marcell Ozuna to bring Miami’s deficit to 5-0.

Perez then recorded his lone out of the start, getting Eddie Rosario to hit a ground ball to second baseman Luis Arraez, before Orlando Arcia ended Perez’s start with another double.

Perez’s season ERA nearly doubled after the outing, jumping from 1.34 to 2.47.

“They’re great hitters, really good batters,” Perez said after the game. “They were practically ready for every pitch that I had for them. You’ve got to understand that there’s also going to be bad days like today, and then you’ve got to get better in that situation and get ready for that next outing.”

Now, the Marlins aren’t going to let one bad outing change their thoughts on Perez. Even with his start on Saturday, Perez is still one of just five pitchers to debut before his 21st birthday to have an ERA of 2.50 or lower through his first 10 starts. Fernando Valenzuela (1.24 ERA in 1981), Bob Moose (2.38 ERA in 1967/1968), Bert Blyleven (2.44 ERA in 1970) and Don Robinson (2.50 ERA in 1978) are the others.

Entering Saturday, Perez ranked in the 99th percentile of pitchers in fastball spin rate, 87th percentile in expected batting average, the 86th percentile in swing-and-miss percentage, 83rd percentile in strikeout rate and 82nd percentile in expected ERA.

His four-seam fastball averages 97.5 mph and has an average spin rate of 2,633 revolutions per minute which adds deception to the speed. His slider has resulted in 23 of his 54 strikeouts while his curveball and changeup have whiff rates above 50 percent.

“You’re looking at arguably one of the best starting pitchers in baseball,” Marlins pitching coach Mel Stottlemyre Jr. said. “A guy that’s equipped with incredible weapons that is still young in the mind, young in terms of experience, but has met all the challenges that have been in front of him, and he’s handled them well.”

Now the Marlins will see how he handles his first real taste of adversity.

“I think he’s strong enough personality-wise,” Schumaker said. “He’s a really mature 20-year-old. He’ll look at it, learn from it and go attack his next bullpen and be ready for his next start. That’s what really good pitchers do, and I think he’s a really good pitcher.”

Where Eury Perez ranks in Marlins history through first 10 starts

Even including the outing against the Braves, Perez still ranks among the top five in Marlins history in a slew of statistical categories through the first 10 starts of a career.

The list below shows those categories, including any pitchers who had at least as many innings as Perez’s 47 1/3, with all 10 games being pitched for the Marlins.

Lowest ERA

1.) Dontrelle Willis: 2.26

2.) Eury Perez: 2.47

3.) Livan Hernandez: 2.59

4.) Josh Beckett: 2.67

5.) Chris Volstad: 3.20

Strikeouts per nine innings

1.) Eury Perez: 10.27 (54 in 47 1/3 innings)

2.) Jordan Yamamoto: 9.17 (55 in 54 innings)

3.) Jose Fernandez: 8.95 (52 in 52 1/3 innings)

4.) Dontrelle Willis: 8.76 (62 in 63 2/3 innings)

5.) Josh Beckett: 8.60 (58 in 60 2/3 innings)

Strikeout percentage

1.) Eury Perez: 27.98 (54 strikeouts against 193 total batters)

2.) Jordan Yamamoto: 25.11 (55 strikeouts against 219 total batters)

3.) Dontrelle Willis: 24.5 (62 strikeouts against 253 total batters)

4.) Jose Fernandez: 23.4 (52 strikeouts against 222 total batters)

5.) Josh Beckett: 23.39 (58 strikeouts against 248 total batters)

Walks per nine innings

1.) Justin Nicolino: 2.55 (17 walks in 60 innings)

2.) Brian Meadows: 2.64 (18 walks in 61 1/3 innings)

3.) Pablo Lopez: 2.76 (18 walks in 58 2/3 innings)

4.) Dontrelle Willis: 2.83 (20 walks in 63 2/3 innings)

5.) Eury Perez: 2.85 (15 walks in 47 1/3 innings)

Walk percentage

1.) Justin Nicolino: 6.83 percent (17 walks against 249 total batters)

2.) Brian Meadows: 6.90 percent (18 walks against 261 batters)

3.) Pablo Lopez: 7.29 percent (18 walks against 247 batters)

4.) Eury Perez: 7.78 (15 walks against 193 batters)

5.) Dontrelle Willis: 7.91 (20 walks against 253 batters)

Strikeouts per walk

1.) Eury Perez: 3.60 (54 strikeouts against 15 walks)

2.) Dontrelle Willis: 3.1 (62 strikeouts against 20 walks)

3.) Pablo Lopez: 2.56 (46 strikeouts against 18 walks)

4.) Jose Fernandez: 2.48 (52 strikeouts against 21 walks)

5.) Josh Beckett: 2.42 (58 strikeouts against 24 walks)

Walks and hits per inning pitched

1.) Jordan Yamamoto: 1.04 (56 hits and walks over 54 innings)

2.) Eury Perez: 1.12 (53 hits and walks over 47 1/3 innings)

3.) Josh Beckett: 1.12 (68 hits and walks over 60 2/3 innings

4.) Livan Hernandez: 1.19 (66 hits and walks over 55 2/3 innings)

5.) Dontrelle Willis: 1.19 (76 hits and walks over 63 2/3 innings)